When I grow up...

Since I can remember, I've always been asked the question "what do you want to be when you grow up?" And my answers to that question have changed throughout the years. I remember there were times where I would answer that I wanted to be a teacher, an author, or an artist. At one point I remember wanting to be those all at one time. In high school I wanted to be a caterer and have my own catering company or restaurant. Although my mom always supported my choices there was one thing that she always told my sister and I. For as long as I can remember, my mom has always told us that she wants us to be stay-at-home moms as long as our future family situations allowed it. She understands that sometimes being a stay-at-home mom isn't possible because of needing the extra money. She understands that because she works. The difference is that she works from home. She doesn't like that she can't be a "full time mommy" as she says but for our family situtation, it wasn't possible. But since she works from home, it's kind of like she is a stay-at-home mom, but not in the way she wants. She always tells us that she wishes that she didn't have to work. But lucky for her, her boss lets her work from home.



In the last couple years I've learned so much from my mom and I've decided that "when I grow up" I want to be just like her. Maybe not in the way of working (unless needed) but in the way of spirituality, preparedness, love towards her family and friends and so many other ways. There is no one I look up to more than my mom. She's my best friend and like I said, she teaches me so much.



One thing that has really stuck out to me the last little while is her willingness to have food storage. When I was little we had our food storage packed with so much food and various things that we've needed but I never appreciated it as much as I do now. Even though we've always had food storage, in the last 4 years or so, mom has gotten even more and has worked harder at making sure that we have what we need. We may not have it all but we have so much! It's amazing to walk into the food storage rooms and see what we have. We have been so blessed with money to be able to put our food storage together in case of an emergency or disaster. And this is all because one day she had a strong feeling to prepare. We've always been taught by our teachers and prophets and apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to have food storage but it wasn't until recently that they've encouraged it more and more (or at least in my eyes I feel like more recently they've encouraged more) but I don't know how many people really listen to this commandment. But what I do know is that I'm so thankful that my mom has listened and is doing all that she can to get our 3-year supply for each member of our family. We have so much more to get but she's trying, and I think that there are blessings for those that try.



Yesterday at church as she was preparing to hand out clip boards, I took a cannery product and price list and we started talking about how it would be smart of me to start my own food storage, even though I still live at home. It's never too early to start, right? So we made a plan that I would spend about $15 a month and we'd go get me dry packed foods to start. We decided on 12 "foods" that I would like and by this time next year, I'll have about 40 cans of beans, dry milk, rice, wheat, apple slices, carrots, macaroni noodles, oats, dry onions, and spaghetti noodles. It's a lot of money for a 20-year old to spend money on when I could spend that money on clothes or concert tickets but with the example of my mom, I know that if I get started now, it will be easier for me to keep it up so that I will have stuff for my future family in case an emergency or disaster happens. And this isn't just because of my moms example but because I know that this is what my Father in Heaven would like me to do and who am I to not listen when He speaks?



Below are pictures of my moms food storage rooms (and she'll probably be mad that I took pictures when it wasn't organized to her liking but she's been so busy lately that we haven't had time to go in and organize it.) A food storage room (or two) is something that I'm going to have in my home when I get married and it's going to look something like these pictures:



These shelves are full of condiments and salad dressings and such.

These shelves have canned chicken and hamburger, soups, jams and jellies, frosting and the likings.

Here's a different view of the frosting shelves along with cake mixes, peanut butter, tuna fish, etc.

These selves have freeze dried fruits and veggies, and canned fruits and veggies.

In our "2nd" food stoarge room we have our drinks (Gatorade, Sobe, water, Apple Juice, Grape Juice, etc.) along with our treats.

Another view of our "2nd" room...

I'm so thankful for this wonderful example who I call my mom and best friend. I just hope that "when I grow up" I can live up to what she does and that I can be an example to my kids like she is to my brothers and sister and I.

Mom for a week

This week I was "Miss Mom." My parents were out of town and they took my brother Daniel with them so it was just my youngest brother Sam and I. We had some fun! We didn't do a whole ton cause after being at work and school all day, it was nice just to have time to relax.

We started off on Saturday afternoon going to see Jonah and the Great Fish (starring David Osmond) with my best friend Sarah Garver at the LDS Film Festival. Sam and I had seen the stage version last year but wanted to go back and see what LIKEN had done to make it a film. And it was very good! I'm very impressed. There are things that they need to fix but they are working on those and it's going to end up being a good film, with of course, the message of listening to what our Father in Heaven asks us to do.

Then on Monday we went grocery shopping and then went home and ate dinner and watched Diary of a Whimpey Kid. It was a cute movie but Sam enjoyed it a ton! He loves the books that the movie is based on. It was a good night.

Tuesday Sam was up at Lehi High School with the Provo High basketball team. Sam is the sophomore manager and loves it! So while Sam was gone, Celeste came over and we watched Camp Rock 2!

On Wednesday I had my first "real mom" experience. Sam's elbow had been hurting him for about a week and before my parents left, mom told me she wanted me to take Sam to the after hours clinic if it got worse. So after work I picked him up and went to get his elbow checked. I was a little nervous about going because I'd never been to a doctors office by myself cause I don't have to go very often myself so going to take my brother was a little scary for me. I just hoped that it would all go ok. We took an X-ray and they found it to be either a fracture or a growth plate. So they gave him a sling to wear until they could have their radiologist look at the X-ray on Thursday. It turns out that it was nothing at all but mom wanted him to keep wearing the sling to make it heal a little faster but Sam has had a hard time wearing it, so I don't think it has helped him that much.

Then on Thursday night after making Pasta Stir-Fry, we met up with my friends Renata and Brieann to help put up flyers around town for the Truman concert at Velour on the 11th. After about an hour, we went to Sammy Cafe to wait for Chad Truman and while there we bought some of Sammy's delicious food! It was very cold outside so while Renata and Brieann had Sammy's famous shakes, Sam and I had Sweet Potato Fries and Hot Chocolate! It was getting late though and Sam had school so we left. It was a good night!

On Friday I was left alone again while Sam was in Orem at Mountain View for the PHS basketball game.

Saturday seemed to be a very busy day but not much was done. I had lots of laundry to do, I had to go to work for a couple hours, and then I sat at SuperSonic car wash for two hours while they detailed my dads truck as part of my moms Valentines present to him. Then that night we met up with lots of family at Chuck-a-rama. My grandma Wheatley's sister and her husband were down here from Washington state and they wanted to take us out to dinner. So although I didn't know most of the family, we went and had a good time with some of my Wheatley cousins, aunt, uncles, and my dads cousin and her daughter. It was tons of fun and I'm glad we ended up going. And lots of thanks to Aunt Sharon and Uncle Ray for buying us all dinner!

Then to end off the week we went to church today and we are now enjoying Super Bowl XLV! (GO PACKERS!!!)

It's been an enjoyable week with Sam and a great "mother" experience for me.

HELLO BLOG WORLD!!

I've finally decided to join the world of blogging. Let's see how well I do. I've had this account since 2008 but just haven't gotten to do anything with it. So, starting this New Year, I've decided to start a blog to let my friends and family know what I'm up to. I hope I can keep up with this and blog at least once a week!

So, as of right now, this is officially my first post! Yay me :)